Distinguished
by nezumihaijin
Summary: Three years after time skip. SPOILERS. Lee goes to visit Gaara, letter in hand. What is so important that the Kazekage has come to Konoha so soon before the final chuunin exam?
1. Letters from Sunagakure

A/N: My first Naruto story, ever! I mostly write Takouji fanfics, many of which I haven't worked on for a year or more... shame But this is something new! So... bear with me. I apologize if any character is OOC... This takes place three years after the time-skip, making Rock Lee's team nineteen and the other teams eighteen.

Pairing: Lee/Gaara/Lee

Rating: G to PG now, will probably go up.

Summary: The chuunin exams are being held in Konoha again, meaning the presence of certain important people in the village. Important people such as Gaara. If you didn't read it on the short summary... SPOILERS! So keep out if you watch the dub (I pity you...) and want your English-Naruto unadulterated (which is impossible, seeing as it is the dub).

* * *

It was possible that Rock Lee had never been so excited in his entire life. Well, perhaps he had, but only once, and that was when he became a jounin. Gai-sensei had been so proud... _that_ had been a good day, but this... this was even better.

"Fuzzy-brows!"

Lee looked up to see one Uzumaki Naruto walking towards him. At the moment, they were in the streets of Konoha, with Lee heading off to do some training and Naruto strolling around like he didn't have a single responsibility. These days, it was hard for Lee to catch one of his friends at an idle moment. Everyone was off doing some mission or another, or taking care of their genin charges. Lee greeted his old friend warmly.

"How have you been, Naruto?"

"You know, kicking ass, fighting evil, becoming Hokage..." Naruto grinned. He had matured greatly in the past three years, but nothing could kill his spirit. He was still the same 'I-conquer-all' kid he had been before, despite his somewhat taller frame and more serious (and talented, for that matter) use of his jutsu. "Of course, nobody said that it wasn't hard work, even for someone like me," he said, adjusting his leaf headband, "especially with all the kids running around. The problem with training them is that they're all so damn stubborn... and hey!" he exclaimed, pointing at Lee, "I heard your rookie team went on to the finals! Is that really true?"

Lee smiled secretly to himself, "Yes, it's true. All three of them passed the first two tests and are now training for their final battles."

This fact had been Lee's main source of pride for the past few weeks. Once again, the chuunin exams were being held in Konoha, and for the first time, Rock Lee's very own team of genin was competing. He had never had a team under his command before; he hoped that they would do well against their competitors, despite the fact that they had been taught by the only jounin in Konoha who was unable to do anything but taijutsu. This was not nearly as much of a problem as it at first seemed to be, and Lee had never been one to falter in self-confidence. Despite what some might consider shortcomings, he had raised the genin to be what he considered excellent shinobi. Their exercises had been mostly stressing teamwork and a strong set of values, and of course Lee never forgot to mention the importance of Hard Work in every lesson. If anything, team Lee had been the best prepared to think through their challenges as a unit, rather than splitting up and fighting for only themselves. They had been taught the same values as when Lee and Naruto were genin, training under Gai-sensei and Kakashi-sensei. They got along fairly well, Lee thought, for a team of genin; better, at any rate, than he had gotten along with Neji.

It was halfway through the month before the final test, and Lee could only hope (although he felt fairly certain) that his two boys and one girl were going to do well in the finals. He was absolutely certain that they would all make fine chuunin, even though none of them had expressed any sort of desire to wear the specially made green jumpsuits that Lee had ordered for all of them. Patience was something that Lee was good with, and even if his team did not become chuunin immediately, they were certain to be promoted the next year. He was willing to wait. He had trained them well, and knew they would do their best.

"That's great!" said Naruto, grinning brightly as usual, "Your team better do well, or you're really gonna hear it from Tsunade."

"I'm surprised you didn't put your team in this year," Lee said. Naruto's team had always been slightly argumentative, but not to the extent that it would hinder them in the exam. Lee suspected that they had a few secrets and trump cards up their sleeves; something that would be expected from having a teacher like Naruto.

"Nah..." Naruto said, "too many fights, not enough teamwork. I'm going to wait until they complete a few more missions before sending them in. But next year, it's all about Konoha! Me and Sakura-chan's teams are gonna sweep the exam!"

"How is Sakura-san?" Lee asked, "I meant to thank her for the medicine she gave me after my last mission, but she's been busy whenever I've gone to see her. I did write her a note though," he added thoughtfully, "several, actually. I wasn't sure if she got them."

His last mission had been a rather complicated one, and he had been in a hurry to get back to Konoha. Due to these two things combined, he had ended up with more than a few deep lacerations.

"Yeah, she got them," said Naruto, "and she's great, just a bit preoccupied with her team and with the hospital and all... it's a lot for her to handle," he admitted, "I don't know how she does it."

The two jounin walked in silence for a moment. Sakura-san was fine, and that was good, Lee thought, so he could stop worrying that she had not been replying because of some kind of trouble. Exactly what kind of trouble could catch Sakura nowadays was unknown to Lee. As far as he knew, she was one of the strongest kunochi in Konoha and could probably take out a man in a single blow. He felt Naruto's elbow dig softly into his ribs and realized that he had been more than a little spaced out.

"Hey," the blonde jounin said, holding his arm out in front of Lee to keep him from wandering away, "stop daydreaming and look over there."

Lee turned his head in the direction that Naruto was pointing. An important-looking man, surrounded by several bodyguards, had just passed. Judging by the looks of those surrounding him, he was from another country.

"Does this mean..."

Lee hadn't been worried before, but the appearance of the important somebody had made him a little distracted. Could his team still perform under all that pressure from the visitors from other countries? It wasn't as thought this were something private, like a self-imposed challenge or sparring between friends. This was real, and very, very serious. For the first time since the beginning of the exam, Lee began to worry about his genin three. He spotted a nearby bench and sat down to think. Naruto, of course, followed him and took his place on the top of the bench, rather than the seat.

"Yeah, it looks like the observers are starting to arrive," finished Naruto. He grinned down at Lee, "I wonder if this means we'll see some old friends."

"Like who?" Lee asked. He was still thinking about the perils of exam nerves and what they would do to an innocent genin.

"I was thinking Sunagakure. You know, Temari, Kankuro, Gaara..."

"Gaara?" Lee asked incredulously, "Do you really think he'd come here?"

"I dunno. He might. His dad _was_ here when we took the exam, even though that was technically Orochimaru using Gaara's dad's body, but he intended to come, right? All sorts of important people are going to be here, why shouldn't Gaara?"

"But his Kazekage duties... he can't leave Sunagakure for that long, can he?"

Naruto shrugged. "Well, he has to leave sometime. When I'm Hokage, I'll want to travel. I'm sure that even a guy like Gaara gets sick of sitting around the desert all the time. It'll be a nice vacation for him. Besides," he pointed out, "he probably won't even be here until a few days before the last exam starts. To make sure he doesn't leave his village unprotected for too long, you know?"

Lee nodded. This made sense.

"I am looking forward to seeing him again," Naruto continued, "It's been so long..."

"I agree," Lee said, "It's been years since I last saw Gaara."

And even longer since you last talked to him, he added mentally. After Gaara had assisted him (Lee refused to use the word 'saved') in his fight against Kimimaro, he had considered the sand nin to be a friend, maybe not in the closest sense of the word, but a friend nonetheless. He had been there after Akatsuki had extracted Gaara's demon from him, the One-Tail, and had done his part with the rest of his team to help Naruto and the others rescue the Kazekage, thus repaying his debt from the fight. But when Gaara was revived, he had only given the slightest of passing glances at Lee. The then chuunin had difficulty interpreting this glance: was it malicious, as if he suspected that Lee had some role in the whole ordeal, or was it a small sign of appreciation for his help?

Lee had gone home rather confused. He had secretly been expecting a conversation like the one they had shared after the fight with Kimimaro, in which Gaara would once again prove to be as insightful as his genius reputation rumored him to be and would come up with some cryptic (but interesting!) conclusion from the ordeal. There was never any such conversation. As far as Lee knew, Gaara had gone back to Suna and was now living his life as its ruler. No one (that he was friendly with, anyway) had even heard from Gaara in the past three years, although he suspected that Tsunade had probably met up with him on occasion. Now that Sand was an ally, there was little need for constant meetings and shows of amiability. The two hidden villages lived practically side by side, coexisting and little else.

"I get letters from him."

Naruto's voice broke through Lee's reminiscing. The blonde got down from the top of the bench and sat on the seat next to him.

"You do?"

"Yeah, every few months. I send him letters too. He's my friend," Naruto said, "I like to know that he's doing okay."

"So Gaara is doing well," said Lee, unsure of what else to say. He couldn't ask about the content of the letters— that would be nosy— but now that he thought about it, he really _did_ want to know how Gaara had been since the Akatsuki attack. In detail.

"Of course! He's gotten more stable over the years. He says that sometimes he even gets hit on by chicks, only he doesn't say it that way, he says," Naruto puffed out his chest and made what Lee could only guess was a stern face, " 'approached by women'. I suppose that if girls like him, he must be doing better. That lucky bastard."

There were times when Naruto really did take after his teacher, Jiraiya. Just a little. One of the things that Lee had noticed about Naruto was that as he got older, his taste in women got a whole lot broader. The jounin had a bad habit of falling head-over-heels in love with any attractive girl he happened to meet. It was innocent though. Usually, after a good sensible talking-to by Sakura-san, Naruto would come to his senses and realize that whatever crush he happened to have was not going to come to much, just like the last crush, and the last... Naruto was not the type of person to spy on women in the bath or write dirty books (thank god), and Lee could not imagine that Naruto's correspondence with Gaara had consisted only of talking about women.

Breaking his silent vow not to bother Naruto about the content of the letters, Lee asked, "Has he told you anything else?"

Naruto shook his head. "Not really. He tells me about the weather in Suna, and I tell him about the rain here, dumb stuff like that." He looked at Lee. "Why? Was there something you wanted to know about Gaara?"

For some reason, Lee felt slightly embarrassed by this question. Maybe it was the way Naruto had worded it, but it seemed to almost assume things about him that he would rather not have assumed.

"No, not particularly..."

"Well, I don't have any dirt on him, if that's what you wanted to know."

Lee put up his hands in protest. "Oh, no. Nothing like that..."

"Gaara's not really the type to share personal details," Naruto said, leaning casually back against the bench, "even if he has changed. We're friends and all, but I don't think he wants to tell me anything private. He doesn't even tell his brother and sister much."

"I just meant... how he was doing as Kazekage. Any battles in Suna. Things like that."

At this point, Lee was quite embarrassed the he had even bothered following up on the subject at all.

"Oh!" said Naruto. He waved his hand in the air, "Yeah, they've had a few scuffles in Suna, like we have here. Nothing big or important. Not anything Gaara can't handle, anyway. He's a tough guy."

"I know," said Lee, and he did know. In fact, he probably knew better than anyone else... but he didn't want to think about that at the moment.

"Oh no!" Naruto exclaimed, holding his stomach, "I forgot! I was going to meet Iruka-sensei to get ramen! Now I'm late! And hungry," he added, "Umm... Fuzzy-brows, if you want to come with..."

"No thank you, I'm alright," Lee said, "I was on my way to train..."

"Okay! That's fine. I can have fun with Iruka-sensei, even though he is getting old..." Naruto laughed, "See you later, Fuzzy-brows!"

"Good bye!"

Lee got up and stretched. With the final test so close, and the possibility of seeing Gaara in town, he would need this training more than anything; he was feeling a lot more anxious than usual.


	2. Lee sensei

I love it how the first suggestion that spell-check makes is to turn "Neji" into "Nazi". Just perfect. XD just like how they edited his forehead in the dub so that people didn't think he was wearing a swastika. OMGZ, Neji, you're pro-Hitler! We never knew.

The first suggestion on the list for "Gai" was "Gay".

XD

Poor Gai-sensei...

Same warnings/ info as before:

Pairing: Lee/Gaara/Lee

Rating: G to PG now, will probably go up.

Summary: The chuunin exams are being held in Konoha again, meaning the presence of certain important people in the village. Important people such as Gaara. If you didn't read it on the short summary... SPOILERS! So keep out if you watch the dub (I pity you...) and want your English-Naruto unadulterated (which is impossible, seeing as it is the dub).

* * *

Stupid tree, getting a huge hole in it after only one thousand forty-three left kicks... No, training was most definitely not calming Lee down, and neither was Neji's presence behind him. The other jounin had shown up about an hour ago, apparently looking to train a little himself.

"Are you going to do this for the rest of the day?" he asked Lee, who was in the process of trying to find a sturdier tree to practice on.

"Yes, if I can," Lee replied.

"What about your team? Are you sure that you can leave them alone this soon before the last exam?"

"Why wouldn't I be able to?" asked Lee, who was now examining a tree that looked as though it was large enough to house a small family, "They've been training for this all year. I thought that it would be best to give them some time by themselves to develop their strengths individually, without their teacher always bothering them." He kicked the new tree, and it seemed to hold up, so he kicked it again.

"You need to give them some kind of support, Lee," Neji said, "Otherwise they'll be hopeless. Your team facing that many strong adversaries—"

"Many of whom they have already beaten!" interrupted Lee angrily as he landed a series of kicks on the unfortunate tree.

"True..." Neji looked at his rival, "but can you really expect them to stand up to their opponents without the slightest bit of encouragement from their teacher?"

Lee stopped his exercises in mid-kick and turned to face Neji.

"Now, wait, I don't think that's entirely fai—"

"After all," Neji continued, "you haven't even seen them for almost a week. They're going to need help at some point. You can't just expect them to be as strong as they need to be."

"But—"

"And even you need Gai-sensei sometimes, even now."

Lee sighed, "Yes, that's true. But I don't think you're being fair. I wouldn't abandon the people who depend upon me. I told them that if they had any problems or questions, they could come to me for help."

"Is that enough?"

Lee was entirely silent for a moment while he thought about that. His students seemed to be doing fine, or at least he assumed they were doing fine, with all he had taught them in the past year. Neji was right though; it didn't feel like enough. Gai-sensei had always been there for him during his chuunin exams—both of them—and it felt strange to not be doing the same for his genin (they were Team Lee, he reminded himself, not Team Everyone-Else). Not that he had been neglecting them, oh no, but he had worried that he would put too much pressure on the children if he kept popping up at random intervals.

"No," said Lee, steadfastly posing to attack the tree again, "It's not enough. I need to let them know that they will always have a shoulder to cry on, or a friend to come to for help, or any such thing, because as their teacher I will always be there for them."

"You probably shouldn't put it exactly that way," said Neji, grimacing as Lee took up his exercising once again. He probably would have had more luck convincing Tsunade to give up drinking than changing Rock Lee's motivational speeches. Lee had already decided long ago to phrase every lecture, whether it was a lesson or a reprimand, the way that Gai-sensei would have. This meant more than just frequent Good-Guy poses and Youth; Lee also wanted his students to find him as inspirational as he found his own teacher, so he tried to give them a lot to think about.

"Once I'm done..." he said, not even close to being out of breath even after several kicks in a row, "I'll go find them. I am their teacher, after all."

Neji frowned.

"The question is, how long until you're done?"

--

It was times such as these that made Lee miss the old days. He was sure that he remembered the trees in that area being more durable, and definitely less splintery. He pulled some of the sharp remains of the third tree out of his uniform. Hadn't there been some sort of training posts back there when he, TenTen, and Neji used to train together? He would just have to come pack some day with his own team and put up new ones.

Speaking of his team, where were those kids? They should be practicing somewhere, but where? He should've asked Neji to come along with him. Maybe they were hanging around near the academy...

"Lee-sensei!"

Lee turned around to see his three genin students running towards him, all looking very flushed and excited.

"Hello, Momoko, Kai, Kazuo."

"Lee-sensei! We were looking for you!" Momoko said.

"You were?"

"Yeah! Where have you been?" Kai asked, "We wanted to ask you something."

Lee felt as though he should launch into some sort of apologetic speech, explaining to his genin that he hadn't realized that they would need him around, thanks to their superior training and skill. He felt incredibly guilty for leaving them alone for such a long time. Why hadn't he thought that they would need to turn to him, when he was probably to easiest person for them to ask about anything? They were gathered around him in a little half circle, with all three of them looking up at him with shining eyes.

"What is it?" asked Lee, hoping to sound as cheerful and encouraging as possible.

"They said that there were going to be important people coming to watch us in our one-on-one fights," said Kai, "what sort of people?"

"Well, they're important, like you said, and some of them are very, very powerful, even more so than the Hokage. They come from all the surrounding countries, and might hire you for a mission if you do well in your fight. That's why it's important to show your strengths in your battle, no matter what they might be."

"Do the other Kage's come too, or will it just be the Hokage?"

Lee scratched his bowl cut, "That I don't know about. I heard from another teacher that they might... why?" He wondered at the look that his three students had all given each other.

"Is... is the Kazekage here to watch?"

Lee's eyes widened. "How did you find out that he would be coming?"

"We were training together earlier this morning," said Momoko, "and we saw him..."

"Saw him?" exclaimed Lee in shock.

Lee was certain that his team had made a mistake, although that was certainly impossible, since part of their training had included information gathering... But hadn't Naruto said that Gaara wouldn't come until a few days before the fights, in order to spend as much time in Suna as he could. Was it even possible for him to be in Konoha already?

Kai nodded, "We saw him near the entrance of the village. He was talking to the guards, and he gave one of them a letter."

"We heard Naruto-sensei's name," Momoko added. Kazuo nodded along with his teammates.

"Gaar—the Kazekage mentioned Naruto-san?"

"Yeah, I think that the letter he had was for Naruto-sensei."

Lee wanted to sit down somewhere comfortable and think about everything his students had just told him. Maybe he should go find Naruto, and find out whether he knew about this... Gaara arriving in Konoha! It was sure to be a major announcement. The sand shinobi hadn't been in the village since the chuunin exam six years ago, when he had been planning to help destroy it.

Lee wanted to sprint off right away to extend the warmest of welcomes the Kazekage, but of course, he didn't know where Gaara was... why hadn't he thought to ask Neji to accompany him when he'd had the chance? He could always just search Konoha until he found him, which could also double as training if he ran while he did it...

"Lee-sensei..." Kai said.

"Hmm?"

"Can you help me with my defense?" Kai asked.

"I need some help too," Momoko admitted. Kazuo said nothing, but just stared hopefully up at Lee. Lee smiled down at his students. They were going to be so great...

"Of course! Defense will be crucial in all of your future fights. Neji-san could tell you an interesting story about why a shinobi should always have several defensive strategies. In fact, I could tell you about it as we go..."

--

Training with his team had given Lee the emotional boost that training alone (or with Neji eerily watching his back) could not. Within an hour, he felt cheerful again; confident in his student's abilities to conquer even the strongest shinobi they would face. He also managed to learn a bit about their opponents as well. Kai was fighting a shinobi from Hidden Stone, a rookie like himself who had somehow lost his teammates in the second test. Momoko was up against a male ninja, a fellow leaf who was rumored to have some sort of powerful secret ability. Kazuo wouldn't talk about his opponent, but he worked relentlessly, and by the end of their training session together he was able to dodge or counter blows from both his teammates and his teacher. At the end, Lee told the genin the story of Neji's fight with the sound nin Kidoumaru.

_They seemed to enjoy it,_ Lee thought as he walked through the door of the Academy. At least they didn't fall asleep like they had when he told them about all of Gai-sensei's challenges to Kakashi (who were now tied at 75 wins apiece). He was looking for either Naruto's students or Naruto, or even the guards at the village gate (what they would be doing at the Academy, he didn't know).

Lee was really just searching for anyone who could tell him where Gaara might be at the moment, or why Gaara was passing secret notes to Naruto, or what he was doing in Konoha two weeks before the final test was scheduled to start.

Instead, he wasn't seeing anyone except Academy students, all of them either in class or on their way to one. He wouldn't dream of bothering Iruka-sensei or one of the other Academy teachers, since they would most likely be in a class and Lee didn't want to interrupt any learning that might be going on. He thought he saw a flash of blonde hair while he was turning a corner, but it turned out to be a young female student practicing her transformation jutsu.

All the relaxing feelings from the double training session were starting to wear off. Much to Lee's disappointment, they were being replaced by some kind of anxiety that he couldn't determine the source of. He tried to picture Gaara strolling through the streets of Konoha, stocking up on fruits and vegetables for the few weeks that he would be spending away from home. The domesticity of the image was slightly disturbing. Most likely Gaara didn't even buy his own food. Either that, or he had brought his own from Suna. The food and customs surrounding it were probably different in the desert. How else would they raise such tough shinobi?

After wandering through every hallway, Lee decided to continue his search outside. He was tired and somewhat bored, but giving up would not be an option. He would search until deep into the night if he had to, and if he didn't find either Naruto or Gaara he would... put up new training posts in the woods by himself!

Lee clenched his fist and stepped into the open air. He had already run several blocks before he heard it... a very distinctive, very loud, very blonde voice.

"I AM being honest, Sakura-chan! I never taught any of your students the Sexy no Jutsu!"

"Well, then why the hell is Yoshiro suddenly turning into a naked woman every time I turn around?" the pink-haired kunochi yelled, "Who else would have taught him how to do something like that?"

Naruto noticed Lee standing outside the ramen shop first. A smile spread across his face, replacing the mischievous grin that had been there a moment ago.

"Fuzzy-brows!"

"Don't try to blame this on Lee! He can't even _do_—Oh, Lee-san!"

"Hello, Sakura-san, Naruto-kun."

Sakura had Naruto backed into a corner. The blonde jounin was trying to laugh off his circumstances while trying to find some means of escape. Sakura looked surprised to see him.

"Lee... I... I'm sorry for not responding to your letters... I've been busy." Sakura said. She really did look sorry; and she had no reason to make up excuses, since they were friends and Lee would forgive her for anything.

"It's fine," Lee replied, giving her a thumbs-up, "I just wanted to thank you for your medicine. It was wonderful."

"Oh! That... it was mostly Tsunade's work that went into it, I only helped a little..."

Sakura smiled awkwardly, then noticed that Naruto was trying to creep off and caught him by the back of his shirt.

"Where are _you_ going? You still haven't answered my question!"

"But..." Naruto protested, "I have something very important to give to Fuzzy-brows!"

Sakura didn't let go, so Naruto pulled out a letter from his weapons pouch.

"Is that the Kazekage's seal?" Sakura asked, noticing the back of the envelope. Lee looked down at the letter in Naruto's hand and saw, to his surprise, the same seal that he had seen on some of the diplomatic letters that turned up in Tsunade's office from time to time.

_This must be the letter that Gaara had told the guards to give to Naruto,_ he thought, _but why would Naruto be giving it to me?_ It was probably just an excuse to put some distance between Sakura and himself.

"Of course!" said Naruto, "I told you it was important, now lemme go."

Sakura sighed and released the blonde shinobi, who immediately dragged Lee out of the Ramen shop. Naruto cast a suspicious look around the street full of innocent civilians.

"We can't talk here, it's too dangerous." he said.

Lee looked around. A few children to his left were playing a game involving a ball. At a fruit stand, two old women were arguing over the price of cherries. People were coming and going out of the various shops down the street, all of them looking as though the last thing on their mind was finding out what Naruto had to say to Lee.

"Dangerous? What kind of danger—"

"Shh!" Naruto waved his hand in the air, "Let's go somewhere else." He ran off down the street, "We can go to my house. Come on!"

--

Naruto's house, as it happened, was on the complete opposite side of the village from the Ramen shop. Lee was starting to suspect that the letter wasn't for him at all, and Naruto was just trying to buy time to think up something to tell Sakura. Oh well, at least the distance they had run could count as some kind of training.

"Alright! Here we are!" said Naruto, throwing open the door to his apartment, "This is where I live!"

The apartment was not as messy as Lee had originally imagined that it would be, but it did smell a little strange, and there were instant ramen cups everywhere. It was Naruto, he reminded himself, stepping over a particularly large pile of them near the doorway. Just because Lee liked to keep his own living quarters sparsely decorated and meticulously clean didn't mean that Naruto had to as well.

"So."

Naruto closed the door behind him.

"You want some ramen, Fuzzy-Brows?"

Well, he was rather hungry... and it would be rude to turn down someone offering such hospitality. Hadn't Naruto just gone out to get ramen with Iruka-sensei?

"Yes, please. That would be nice."

"Alright, but you'll have to come with me to the store to get some later, then. I'm all out." Naruto scratched his head nervously, "Dunno how that happened. Anyway..." He took out two letters and handed one to Lee, "A guard gave me two letters this afternoon, this one," he held up a letter with the Kazekage's seal on it, "and another one for me. My letter had instructions from Gaara to give this second one to you as soon as I saw you."

Lee slid his finger under the seal, noticing that this seal was a little different from the one on Naruto's letter; at the bottom, the characters for "important" and "classified" were stamped into the wax, as well as the Kazekage's mark. The grade of paper was also a lot higher than what was usually used, even in communications between officials. This letter must have come directly from Gaara's hands, not from some aid or scribe. He wondered if the letters that Naruto had received from the Kazekage were all this high quality.

The lettering was very dark, with a tint of red in the ink. Gaara's handwriting—if this was, in fact, Gaara's handwriting—was exceptionally fine and small. Lee had heard that you could tell a lot about a person by his or her handwriting, but this didn't seem to match Gaara's personality at all. It was much too thin and delicate, too spidery, and Lee's memories of Gaara were all... well, forceful.

"What does it say? What does it say?" asked Naruto, trying to look over Lee's shoulder at the letter.

_Rock Lee,_

_As a jounin instructor of Konoha, I am sure you have already been informed of my arrival in your village. Under normal circumstances, as you most likely know, a visiting Kage is to stay no longer than a week in a foreign village. My own visit has been extended to three weeks for reasons that are not under discussion. I have scheduled a meeting with you for later this evening. Your presence is requested at the Kazekage's temporary residence at no later than 5 PM. You are to come alone, and anyone accompanying you will be turned away._

_Godaime Kazekage_

_Sabaku no Gaara_

And Naruto talked about the weather with this man? Gaara sounded more sinister and cold than he had the last time Lee had spoken to him. Maybe it was the official tone, but the letter made him want to do anything but go visit the Kazekage.

"So?" Naruto asked, "What was it?"

Lee folded the letter carefully and put it back in its envelope.

"Gaara-san requests my presence..."

Naruto jumped back in surprise.

"Whaaat? You? Why you? I'm the one who's been writing to him for years! Fuzzy-Brows," he grabbed Lee's shoulders, "When did you suddenly start getting VIP meetings with the Kazekage?"

_Apparently now,_ thought Lee, putting the letter into one of his jounin vest's pockets.

"He didn't give a reason," he said, "just 'your presence is requested no later than five PM'..."

"Hmm..." said Naruto, apparently deep in thought, "Sunagakure does have a team in the exam this year, and I'm sure their instructor is itching to know—"

"Gaara-san wouldn't do that!" said Lee. Naruto looked at him, surprised.

"Fuzzy-brows?"

"Sunagakure is an ally, not an enemy. We have known this for years," he paused, "I trust them, and Gaara-san above all. He is not the same man."

"Well sure," said Naruto, crossing his arms, "but his jounin could still be the same men! What happened to the whole 'underneath the underneath' that we learned when we were genin?"

"I don't think that there is an underneath to this situation," Lee said. He hoped he was right. There should not be any threat to his personal safety; he highly doubted that the Sand shinobi were stupid enough to injure a ninja of a village that they were staying in. As for his team, if any questions regarding them came up, he wouldn't answer them. It was not a difficult situation, not by Lee's standards anyway.

Not going was not an option. He had been requested personally by a high standing official, and it would be incredibly rude do decline. Besides, even if Gaara had been only a jounin like himself, it had been three years since Lee had seen him last.

It had been so long...

"Fuzzy-brows, what are you thinking about?" Naruto asked, "Nerves getting to you?"

"No," Lee answered truthfully.

"Then you'd better go now," he said, "it's already after four-thirty..."

"It is?" Lee exclaimed. He pulled out his watch from his jounin vest and looked at it. Four-forty-two. He had only eighteen minutes to get back across the village to where Gaara and the other observers were staying!

"Good bye, Naruto-kun," he said, throwing open the door, "And good luck with Sakura-san!"

Naruto waved at Lee from his doorway.

"Bye, Fuzzy-brows!"

Lee gave Naruto a thumbs-up over his shoulder and began his sprint to the Kazekage's temporary apartment. If he didn't make it by five o'clock, then he would multiply the number of minutes he was late by 100, then do that many crunches. You couldn't make someone like the Kazekage wait, especially not when the Kazekage was Gaara.

_And it had been so long..._

TBC


	3. Empty Rooms

I feel like I haven't been here in forever! ( My schoolwork has been keeping me pretty busy, and for a few weeks I sort of forgot about this chapter. XP and I still have college applications to fill out.

The guard's name, Kizuato, means "scar", which obviously isn't much of a name for a real kid, but since this is Narutoverse, kids get named all sorts of weirdo things (like "swirly fishcake" and "fang"). I thought that since he was a sand jounin, he should get an appropriate name for Sunagakure.

--

Lee landed squarely on his feet in front of the temporary residence of the Kazekage, knees bent to absorb the shock. He checked his watch. It was four minutes to five. Not a bad time at all for running across the village, although Gai-sensei could have probably done it in half that time.

"You must be Rock Lee."

The young Suna jounin who was standing guard outside of Gaara's apartment was wearing thick bandages over most of his face, but that did not prevent him from raising his eyebrows as soon as he saw the exceptionally green Leaf nin approaching him.

"Yes," said Lee, "I am here to see the Kazekage. I received a letter approximately a half an hour ago. He requested my presence at 5 PM. I am on time and ready to be escorted to my destination."

The guard looked a little taken aback at Lee's promptness.

"Yeah, Kazekage-sama told us to expect you... um... do you have identification?"

Lee unzipped a pocket on his vest and pulled out the letter.

"Will this be enough?"

He handed it to the Suna shinobi, who looked at the seal on the envelope before opening it. The jounin blew a thin whistle through his teeth.

"'Important,' huh? What did you do, save his life?"

He gave the note inside a quick check before refolding it and returning it to Lee.

"Yeah, this is it. Go right in," he said, "Kazekage-sama's room is in the back of the apartment. It's a little dark in there, so be careful. Make sure before you knock before you go in. That's pretty important. Kazekage-sama is sensitive to intruders, even if they are expected, and he's been a little twitchy lately..."

Lee didn't want to know what kinds of incidents had earned Gaara the description of 'twitchy'.

The guard opened the door to let Lee into the apartment, and he stepped inside. The air was slightly less humid than the outdoors. When housing visitors from other countries, Konoha tried to mimic the conditions in their apartments to those in their own land. Visitors from the Water country were given cooler, more humid rooms, while a visitor from Sunagakure could expect a room with more arid conditions.

"My name is Kizuato, by the way. Talk to me if you need anything."

Lee smiled and gave a thumbs-up, "Thank you, Kizuato-san. I'll be sure to do that."

Kizuato softly closed the door behind Lee.

The room was completely dark.

"A _little_ dark?" he said.

There were no windows. Before Kizuato shut the door, he had seen the entrance to the room across from him and a small table with an empty vase on it to his left. Aside from that, the room had been empty. If there was a light, Lee had no idea where it was, and he wasn't about to crawl around in the dark and risk breaking the vase on the table. Why hadn't he brought Neji?

_...anyone accompanying you will be turned away._

Why did Gaara want him to come alone? For a shinobi to attempt a solo mission was dangerous. Even when you were visiting another person, it was imperative that you bring someone, just in case there was a trap or an unforeseen problem. Gaara undoubtedly knew this; he wouldn't be Kazekage without basic shinobi knowledge, even if he could bury a forest in sand.

The silence in the room was complete; there were no noises from any of the neighbors next door. These apartments were soundproofed for guests that would require more than the usual amount of privacy, visiting Kazekages included. Worst of all, he had the feeling that he was being watched, that if he spun around quickly enough, he would catch a pair of green eyes staring at him out of the dark.

_Making someone fight in the dark is a battle tactic,_ the shinobi part of his mind kept reminding him. Not that Lee had anything to worry about. If he closed his eyes, it was exactly the same as running in his sleep. Not difficult at all, considering that in the apartment, he wasn't running through the mountains and didn't have to dodge any random attacks from Gai-sensei.

Lee could sense the doorknob just a few inches in front of his fingers, tantalizingly near in the silence and the darkness that seemed strong enough to break something inside his head. Lee feared nothing, but this wasn't fear. This was the apprehension of seeing the face that went with the 'important' seal on the unnecessarily formal envelope, the face of the person who had both ruined him and saved him, who had been haunting him for years.

It had been less than an hour ago when he had received the letter from Naruto, but questions were piling up in his head. He realized, standing with his hand a half-inch from the doorknob, that he was not going to be asking a single one.

There was the soft sound of something scraping along the wooden slats of the floor, and the door clicked open just enough for a crack of light to slip through. Lee placed his hand on the knob and felt a few cool grains loop around his fingers, as if they were pulling him in. His pulse went up.

The last time he had felt something like that had been almost six years ago. He had been floating over a forest of bones, or under a tree, or on the cold floor of the stadium... But this was not a battle. This time, the sand felt more relaxed against his skin, almost lazy in the way it tugged on his fingers and led him to open the door and look inside.

Gaara was inviting him in.

Lee pressed lightly on the door and it swung creakily open. The room was relatively bright compared to the one he had just been in—it had windows, for one thing— but the blinds were shut and the curtains were partially drawn. It took Lee a while to adjust to the light, but once he did, he discovered Gaara sitting cross-legged on the floor by the window with his gourd propped up against the wall.

A chair and a small bookshelf resided comfortably off to Lee's left. He noted that there were a few books on the shelf— probably records of some sort—along with an empty glass and a plate. Alongside these was a door, which Lee presumed led to the bedroom and the bathroom. Not that Gaara would need a bedroom any time soon.

Gaara turned towards Lee, not looking directly at him as he spoke.

"You came alone."

"It was requested."

There was a formal silence between the two shinobi. Lee tried to remain as serious as possible. This was a meeting, probably about something important, and he didn't need to make things uncomfortable by bringing up anything about the Perseverance of Friendship as the Years go by.

"Close the door."

Lee did so immediately. Spinning around awkwardly, he closed the door a little harder than he had meant to, the sound sharp in the dense stillness of the room. The silence that followed between him and Gaara was worse than the first one. Lee hated odd breaks in conversation. He wasn't going to stand there staring at the Kazekage's sandals for an hour waiting for the man to talk, formalities be damned. Lee cleared his throat.

"The genin team from Suna, how are they?" he asked.

Gaara eyes didn't move, but rested unfocused on a point near Lee's left ear.

"If you want to know about the genin, you'll ask their jounin instructor. I assign missions. Other than that, I don't have much contact with them."

"Right," Lee said, scratching his head distractedly. That hadn't been a good question to ask anyway. What did he want Gaara to think, that he was doing reconnaissance work in a personal meeting? Assuming this _was_ personal, it was starting to look as though the Kazekage had invited him here to be stared at and dismissed.

Now, Lee was patient, in most circumstances. He could exercise for hours, wait silently in the shadows while he waited for the perfect opportunity to strike an opponent on a mission, spend years waiting for Sakura-san to be more than a friend; but this was making him anxious. Gaara was still staring off elsewhere, looking almost beyond the walls and at Kizuato outside. Lee's head was bursting with questions to ask, but he kept his eyes pointed forward and his shoulders squared.

"How have _you_ been, Gaara-san?"

For an instant, before Lee even finished the sentence, Gaara's eyes flicked to his face. Even though it was not a long glance by any stretch of the imagination, Lee had the feeling that he was being examined, even after Gaara had looked away.

"I haven't had any problems."

Oh.

Lee decided to stop his attempts at conversation. He didn't have to guess at anything in this situation. When Gaara wanted something, he would tell him, and he would have to be ready to hear him out on whatever it was.

"Sit down," Gaara said. Lee nodded and sat down in the armchair, "The final test of the chuunin exam is in two weeks. Your team is ready?"

Lee nodded, "Yes, of course, they've trained very hard for this exam. All of their recent missions were executed flawlessly."

For the first time, Gaara looked directly at Lee. Looking back at him, the jounin felt a pang of unfamiliarity. If there was any recollection of friendship or shared experiences in those eyes, he could see none of it (in Lee's opinion, a fight against a strong opponent was one of the best experiences one could share with a fellow shinobi). Gaara was just as calm and controlled as he had been during his genin days. The only difference was that these days, Gaara's eyes held no sign of madness or hate. They were softened and defined with the experience of his life—and death—as the Kazekage.

"Your students," Gaara said, his eyes staring directly into Lee's, "do they take after you?"

Lee couldn't help the modest smile that crept up on his face.

"They work very hard. I have even heard from Gai-sensei and Naruto-kun that they train on their own at the Academy dojo, even when I have a mission of my own."

If Gaara ever blinked, it wasn't very often, and he was starting to make Lee nervous.

"Tell your student to forfeit his match."

"What!" Lee shouted, jumping out of the chair, "Forfeit? Why on earth should any of them forfeit? They are strong and intelligent shinobi who haven't even begun to uncover their full potential! I haven't taught them for all this time for them to give up before they've even begun to fight!"

"Your student Kazuo is fighting one of Sunagakure's new genin. It would be wiser for him to step down than to face such a strong opponent," Gaara said. He placidly returned to looking at the curtained window, and Lee stood with his mouth agape, taking in this information. Was this all that Gaara had requested him for? Was this the sole reason he had come to Konoha two weeks in advance?

"Kazuo is fighting a Sand nin?"

Gaara nodded.

"Is he... strong?"

"As I said before, if you want to know about the Sand genin, you'll ask their jounin instructor."

Lee frowned in frustration. _His_ student, forfeit a match—his first match, at that! Kazuo would never agree, especially not if he thought his sensei wasn't completely convinced of the idea himself. Lee had almost won against a Sand shinobi once, who was to say one of his students couldn't do it?

"Gaara—"

"That was all I wanted to discuss. You can leave. I'll escort you out," Gaara said. He stood up and hefted the gourd onto his back.

_So that was all_, Lee thought, and opened the door to the dark entrance room.

--

"Fuzzy-brows! How did your meeting with Gaara go? What took you so long to get back? And what's wrong with your face?"

Lee had returned to Naruto's place after his meeting with Gaara, even though he was in the mood to go home. He needed to think, but he also needed to let Naruto know that he had returned from his visit with Gaara. Lee had knocked, as usual, but instead of finding Lee when he opened the door, Naruto had found some weird, frowning thing with a bowl-cut and legwarmers.

This must have been what Gai-sensei had gone through during his operation, wondering what the right decision for his student was: the risky operation or a life without taijutsu. It was almost the same. Kazuo wouldn't want to back down, Lee knew that, but what if he had to? He couldn't be forced to fight if there was no life left in him. Sunagakure had a reputation, but that was not what worried Lee.

What worried him was that Gaara had been the one to warn him.

Gaara knew Lee's strength as well as any Konoha shinobi. He probably knew it better than anyone except Neji, TenTen, and Gai-sensei, having experienced it himself. He would never underestimate Lee and would therefore never underestimate any student of Lee's. If Gaara thought the situation was worth running from...

"What's with the frown, Fuzzy-brows? Gaara's okay, right?"

"Gaara is doing well," Lee said.

"So everything's okay!" Naruto ushered him in the door. Lee couldn't help but give a wistful look towards Naruto's couch, which was looking considerably more comfortable than it had about an hour ago.

"Fuzzy-brows!" Naruto said sternly, crossing his arms over his chest, "What's _wrong_ with you?"

"It's nothing. A small setback in training is all. I can handle it on my own."

Naruto cocked his head to the side. Lee could see that the other jounin did not believe him in the least.

"Okay..."

He would explain later, after he had straightened things out. For now, he needed to go home and do something relaxing, maybe meditation or resistance training.

"Naruto-kun, thank you for delivering Gaara's letter to me today," he said, "but I should be heading home now."

He gave a short polite bow to the other jounin and took off towards his home, leaving one very confused Naruto Uzumaki behind to wonder what on earth— short of the death of a teammate— could have made Rock Lee distressed.


End file.
